BOSTON – The state's 24-year-old school funding formula comes up short by $1-2 billion when it comes to projecting the real cost of public education each year, according to a group of lawmakers and education experts who unveiled a new proposal Monday.

Gerry Tuoti Wicked Local Newsbank Editor

BOSTON – The state’s 24-year-old school funding formula comes up short by $1-2 billion when it comes to projecting the real cost of public education each year, according to a group of lawmakers and education experts who unveiled a new proposal Monday.

State Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, D-Jamaica Plain, is the lead sponsor of S.223, a bill that would phase in an overhaul of the current K-12 funding formula. Over the past two-dozen years, rapidly rising costs for healthcare and special education have handcuffed school systems, leaving them with little left to spend elsewhere and sometimes forcing them to make cuts to programs that directly impact student services.

“This is not schools asking for extra funding. This is not schools being frivolous,” Chang-Diaz said. “This funding formula has eroded ... Every year, we have been asking schools to do more and more with less.”

Dozens of state lawmakers and education leaders gathered Monday at the Statehouse to name the bill a top legislative priority.

The Education Reform Act of 1993 established the current “foundation funding” formula, which is supposed to determine the minimum amount of money needed in each school district to provide an adequate education for all students. School districts get funding from the local city or town, as well as from the state. Many districts, particularly in wealthy communities, contribute additional non-required funding to their school districts.

Many less-affluent communities, however, don’t have the extra property tax income and other revenue to spend above the minimum on education.

The new bill would require the state to use averages from the Group Insurance Commission, the health insurance provider for state employees, to more accurately project each school district’s healthcare costs. It would also tweak the current funding formula by increasing the assumed percentage of each district’s students enrolled in special education programs from 15 to 16 percent.

“We’re falling short on things we did not anticipate 25-30 years ago, such as how much healthcare costs would escalate and how much special education costs would escalate,” said Harvard education professor Paul Reville, a former Massachusetts secretary of education. “In many cases, districts are robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

Recognizing the stresses faced by school districts with high concentrations of poverty and large populations of students who lack fluency in English, Chang-Diaz said the new proposed formula would direct additional funding to those communities. This would be accomplished by adjusting the mathematical formula to give more weight to each low-income student and English language learner.

The bill would also implement a new set of data collection requirements, which supporters say would give policymakers the information they’d need to make additional funding adjustments in the future.

State Sen. James Eldridge, D-Acton, said the 14 communities he represents are often faced with difficult decisions and potential school budget cuts because the current formula no longer accurately accounts for special education and healthcare costs.

Adjusting the formula, he said, would relieve the pressure of rising property taxes in communities, while giving additional resources to less-affluent cities and towns.

Eldridge said it’s “deeply unfair, and I would argue unconstitutional,” that students in a poor community don’t typically get the same public educational opportunities as those in a wealthy town.

“I think it’s about helping all school districts while recognizing poorer districts need more aid,” he said.

Chang-Diaz said the new formula would be implemented in steps over several years, lessening the financial impact on state budget planners. Many communities already spend more than is required on public education, which would lessen the amount of any new funding needed.

State Sen. William Brownsberger, D-Belmont, who represents Belmont, Watertown and parts of Boston, projects schools in those communities would all see similar impacts under the proposal.

“They’d all benefit substantially,” he said.

State Sen. Marc Pacheco, D-Taunton, who represents a large section of southeastern Massachusetts, said the proposal will help “equalize” the foundation funding formula for all schools. The foundation budget represents the minimum amount of money needed to provide an adequate education for all students.

“The rationale, originally, for creating a foundation budget was to make sure all students, no matter where they live, no matter which household they’re in, no matter what economic background they’re from, would be guaranteed a foundation-level budget that would adequately provide for their educational needs,” he said. “Unfortunately, what’s happening right now is there’s this erosion that’s undermining that critical formula, so we do need to update it.”

The bill incorporates the recommendations of a 2015 commission that was formed to examine the funding formula. Chang-Diaz filed a similar piece of legislation in the 2015-16 session, but it failed to pass.

Proponents of the proposal say they’re encouraged by the increased support the new bill is receiving.

“This is the largest, most diverse coalition of education reformers I have ever seen gathered in one place representing so many different organizations,” said Glenn Koocher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees.

The proposal, he said, is “reasonable, responsible and doable.”

The bill has been referred to the Joint Committee on Education, where it is expected to undergo hearings ahead of any potential votes.